How the new job's going

March 8th, 2011 at 04:34 pm

I guess I'd have to say it's kind of like a writer's version of a sweatshop. Meaning, I have to work very quickly because volume is at least as important as quality. And of course it's easy to measure how much I've done by the number of write-ups I complete.

However, I figure if I managed to do tedious online surveys for months just to earn a little cash, I can do this.

Given how simple what I'm doing is, the pay ($25/hr) is really pretty good. To put it in perspective, it's twice as much as I was getting from unemployment but half as much as I was making at my last contract job at the big insurance company where I dearly wanted to stay.

The other great thing about this job is that I'm home 4 days out of 5. Even before the spike in the cost of gas, I'd consider this a godsend, but now it's even better.

He originally told me to expect to come into the city 2 or 3 days a week for the first 2 weeks until I get the job under my belt and after that I could work at home all but 1 day a week. Well, i guess i picked it up so quickly that after my first day ended, he said i could work from home and just come back in for the once weekly writers' meeting on Thursday. Very nice indeed.

I doubled my output at home today compared to the work i did yesterday, my first day, in the office.

There is absolutely no time for goofing off, you really have to commit to cranking these things out. However, I started at 8:30 am, took a 1/2 hour for lunch and called it a day at 5.

I created simple spreadsheets to help me track my tax deductible expenses, including 100% of my COBRA premiums and any out of pocket medical I may incur. Sweet.

There are still 2 perm jobs I'm very much hoping to hear from. Who knows how long I'll be working at this place, a month or a year? There's a place for me at the place I'm at if I want to stay (and of course i will until i find that perm job) because on my first day a gal there was showing me how to post stories online using their software, and i asked her who was editing my work. She said, well, so and so is doing it now, but we're hoping it will be you! Meaning, if things work out, there's a bigger role they want me to play.

It's fine with me; it won't mean more money, and the work will be pretty much the same except I'll be reviewing other writers' work. I think I'll be meeting the other 3 or 4 writers at the Thursday meeting.

On my drive into work yesterday, I saw the aftermath of extremely heavy rains here the day before. We got 3.5 inches overnight. My route parallels a a river that had overflowed its banks, and i saw a number of houses (summer cottages?) that were completely surrounded by water. I mean, it looked like the houses were in the middle of a lake! Surreal! Various wood docks had come loose from their moorings and were floating in the middle of the river, along with some canoes and, from what i heard on the news, even a few cars. I had a little seepage in the basement, but nothing to worry about.

Oh, I was also able to figure out why I got an extra $800 in my tax refund check. The IRS (surprising to me) gave me further details when I went online and clicked the "Where's my Refund?" link. I forgot to fill out one of the worksheets having to do with taxation of qualified money. BIG mistake on my part....sure am glad the IRS found it!!!!!!